Review and Swatches: Urban Decay Vice 2 Palette

Hello Dolls! 

Long time no see. I'm happy to report that I finally have a fully functioning laptop once again! Since this was the only thing preventing me from actually being able to write blog posts, edit videos/pictures, I'm glad to say that I will now be posting at lease once a week! 

Today, I will be bringing you a review on one of this years most talked about palette. 

Urban Decays Vice 2!

If you already own the original Vice palette and are debating whether or not buying the second one will be worth it is important to know that this palette contains 20 brand new, never before seen shades from Urban Decay. The overall color scheme is different as well. The shades in this palette are more dark based, jewel colors than the original, with some neutrals thrown in the mix. This palette contains very little matte shades, only 2 true mattes in the entire palette, which is one less matte than the original Vice palette.

The packaging of this palette is amazing. It is a bit bulkier but in the greatest of ways. The design and colors of the packaging absolutely sucked me in. It's a beautifully marbled design full of purple and magenta goodness. The inside packaging is no less beautiful. First of all the palette opens by itself once the button on the front is pushed, and remains open to reveal a full size mirror! Most palettes come with mirrors that end up being completely useless because they're either too small, or are on a lid that continuously falls, but not this one! This is a perfect palette to take on vacations, sleep over or anywhere where you think you may need a good size mirror. 

The Vice 2 palette comes with 20 brand new, never before seen eyeshadows. The palette contains four rows of five eyeshadows, none in a specific order. It also holds a double ended brush with a regular eyelid brush and a blending/crease brush.

Now onto my favorite part!! The shadows. 

Row 1:

Smokeout: Satin dark taupe-y charcoal black 

Great pigmentation, and incredibly smooth.

Lovesick: Matte black with silver micro-glitter.

Not Urban Decays greatest black, and the silver glitter doesn't transfer well onto the lid 

Shellshock: Metallic silver. 

Great pigmentation with amazing texture. 

Coax: Metallic pink with gold micro glitter. 

Great pigmentation and little to no fall out from the glitter. 

X-Rated: Sating baby pink. 

Incredibly buttery texture, with good pigmentation

Row 2:
Prank: Matte dark navy with turquoise micro glitter.
Amazing pigmentation!!

Madness: Metallic jewel blue with blue glitter.
Good pigmentation and finish.

Strike: Metallic antiqued gold with silver glitter.
Good pigmentation, and a nice different shade for this palette.

Stash: Shimmer deep olive green.
Good pigmentation a darker version of MAC's Sumptuous Olive.

Poison: Satin charcoal with blue micro glitter.
Good pigmentation and glitter transfer.

Row 3:
Radar: Metallic brown, copper with gold glitter.
It's such a nice neutral color in this palette of jewel toned brights.

Damaged: Metallic emerald green.
Perfect pigmentation and absolutely one of my favorites in the palette!

Voodoo: Metallic purple with purple and magenta glitter.
Such an amazing, original color.

Betrayal: Satin purple and pink duo chrome.
Great pigmentation, a darker more blue based version of Urban Decays Fishnet eyeshadow.

Derailed: Metallic medium taupe-y brown.
Good pigmentation, but overall nothing too special

Row 4:
 Dope: Satin Champagne.
Probably one of the best champagne shadows I've ever seen!

Toxic: Metallic pink based copper with slight golden shimmer.
Amazing pigmentation and finish!

Habit: Matte nude.
Perfect as a highlight color for more olive skinned ladies.

Ambush: Metallic brown with a slight turquoise shift.
Great pigmentation, it just feels like every company is coming out with
a shade in this same color.

Rewind: Matte medium brown.
Nice pigmentation and a great color to neutralize any look!

This palette overall is a big hit for me. There's a great mix of shadows that can be used to create any type of look, from neutral everyday to the most extravagant night look! This is a great gift for any makeup lover this season, and a definite mush have!
This palette is available only for a limited edition, and at $59 it's a pretty good deal for all the shadows you receive!!

You can purchase your own Vice 2 Palette from Urban Decay, Sephora, Ulta and Beauty.com! 

2 in 1 Review and Swatches: Coastal Scents Hot Pots & Empty Palettes

Hello Dolls! Today I bring you two reviews in one, both from the same company. About two months ago while reading random blog posts I ran into swatches of Coastal Scents Hot Pots, single eyeshadows, so obviously I immediately searched the internet for more swatches. I hadn't really paid attention to Coastal Scents in a while and didn't realize they sold shadows in single pans, so I decided to press my luck and buy a few. A long with purchasing the shadows I decided to get the empty palette designed specifically for these shadows. 

In this review I will be speaking about about both the shadows as well as the discussing palette briefly.

Packaging:

Coastal Scents has really kicked it up a notch since the last time I made a purchase from them. CS has three different palettes available for purchase, a single pan, or palettes that hold 4, 12, or 28 single shadows. They range from $4-$19 in price, but are completely worth more! These palettes come with the Coastal Scents logo printed on the cover and the website printed on the back. It's credibly sturdy in, and a good shape. It feels heavier than other empty palettes, which is a good thing, and comes with a massive mirror. The 12 pan, which I purchased is a bit larger than my hand and has handled various bumpy trips in my purse with no scratches. All of the palettes accommodate the CS pan eyeshadows, you could also fit MAC and Makeup Geek shadows in here

Now for the shadows. The CS "Hot Pots" are pan eyeshadows that go for $1.99 a piece with the same amount of product as MAC and MUG. You can choose from over than 375 different shades of eyeshadow on their website. The shadows arrive in a plastic packaging, until you remove them and place them in the palette of your choice. On the back of the pan the name, number, and coastal scents logo are imprinted.

Product:

Like I said before CS has an immense variety of over 375 shadows in their collection. It took me nearly two weeks to actually decide which 12 shadows I wanted to try. I have been on a bright kick lately and went for mostly bright colors. (And apparently I really like the color green) All of the shadows I picked up are incredibly pigmented, and not chalky. Which is surprising since most bright colored shadows tend to be chalky, especially when they cost $2! All of the shadows on the website have a name to them, but as you can see some of the pan I received only come with a letter and a number. This is mostly because CS recently renamed all of their shadows.When I swatch these, I will be referring to them as they are named on the CS website. One thing I did not like about shopping with CS is that with such an array of shadows only certain shades actually have swatches to them on the website . This can make your purchase and decision a bit of a guessing game.

Swatches:

Vibrant Green: matte vibrant lemon green

Prehistoric Green: matte forest green

Pinerhurst: matte dark forest green

 

 Vibrant Lime Green: matte vibrant, almost neon lime green

Teal Green: (i don't get this name) matte vibrant teal

Deep Grape: matte deep royal purple

Coral: satin red coral with orange underones

Vibrant Pink: matte vibrant true pink

Magenta: matte purple based pink

Raisin Berry: metallic shimmering maroon

Elven Midnight: metallic silver/ light gunmetal

Rainstorm: satin black based royal blue

 

Overall:

I'm highly pleased with the quality of these eyeshadows. When you purchase eyeshadows at $2 a piece you don't necessarily expect a lot. But Coastal Scents has completely shined! All of the shadows are super easy to work with, and have amazing texture no matter the finish of the actual shadows. They're all so pigmented that I caught myself saying "Wow!" multiple times. The palette also left no room for anything else be desired. The quality of all of these products is beyond excellent! I would definitely suggest looking into this makeup company. I have purchased many palettes and brushes from them, and have never been let down!

Review and Swatches: BH Cosmetics 28 Color Palette Smoky Edition

Hello Dolls! Today I bring you a review on the 28 Color Smoky Edition palette I recently received in the mail from BH Cosmetics. I did receive this palette for free but only because it came free with a purchase over $25. I had been curious about this palette since I first saw it, and was glad I managed to get it for free with my last purchase from BH Cosmetics. I  have played around with this palette a lot since I got it late last week.  My last FOTD featured a shade from this same palette.

*DISCLAIMER: This is a very picture heavy post*

 Packaging:

The 28 Colour Palette Smoky Edition one of the many palettes BH offers in their vast array of cosmetics. The palette comes packaged in BH's new packaging design for smaller palettes witch basically means that it is a plastic case, with a see through lid. The lid comes stamped with the BH Cosmetics logo as well as the name of the palette. The back casing of the palette is a black, glossy plastic material stamped with the ingredients, name of the palette as well as instructions as to how to apply the eye shadows.Overall it is nice, and sleek packaging but as handy as the see through lid is, it really doesn't make up for the fact that the palette, overall feels flimsy and as if it would break within the first drop.

 

Photo Credit  

Product:

 The smoky palette consist of 28 eyeshadows ranging from reds, pink, purples, blues, blacks and greys. It currently is priced at $10, but the pricing tends to change a lot for BH. At $10 for 28 shadows it does seem like a steal, and too good to be true. And sadly, it is. This palette is mostly presented by BH Cosmetics as an all in one go  to palette to create any desired smoky eye. But, honestly, this palette is not your friend if you where interested in brown,  green, reds,  or basically  any other color besides what is presented in the palette. 

Swatches:

(next to swatches will be the number of times of layers it took to get it that color/opacity)

Column #1: Pinks and Reds

Left to right:
-cool toned matte baby pink (5)

-warm toned light pink with a hint of shimmer (2)

-light satin plum (2)

-blue based matte red (2)

Column #2

Light "neutrals"

 -frosty white with heavy white glitter particles (3)

- satin beige with pink undertones (2)

-matte neutral based baby pink (3)

-dark matte red plum (2)

Column #3:

Purples and Berrys 

-sheer grey based lilac with golden glitter flecks (6) 

-red based plum with golden shimmer (3)

-pink based purple/magenta (5)

- black based dark purple with magenta shimmer (3)

Column #4:

Greens and Light Purples

-sating moss green with gold shimmer (4)

-light matte grey based light blue (5)

-matte grey based lavender (6)

-true royal purple (5...yes 5 layers and it still came out like that -_-)

Column #5

Blues:

-matte dark seafoam blue (5) 

-mettalic grey based blue (4)

-matte dark navy blue (3)

-matte dark royal blue (2) -one of my fave in the palette

Column #6:

Greys

-matte light grey (4)

-satin true gray (3)

-mettalic grey gunmetal

-black with golden glitter/shimmer (2)

 

Column #7:

Dark  "Neutrals"

-grey based mettalic brown (3)

-metallic true gunmetal (2)

-black with silver glitter fleck (2)

-matte black (3)

Overall:

Simply put, I'm glad I got this palette for free. So many of these eyeshadows looked so vibrant in the palette, but failed to live up to expectations when put into use.  For $10 it is a true "too good to be true" palette. Where few of the shadows where great, the majority really failed to deliver. Having to layer a shadows that many times to come to such an underwhelming conclusion is a pain. Yes, there are maybe five shades that I really enjoyed in this palette. So much so that I even considered depotting the few good ones and placing them into a Zpallete. This palette also fails to amaze when it comes to packaging. I see where BH Cosmetics was going with it's new packaging, but it just missed the mark. I know that in order to keep the palette so cheap you cant make it so heavy duty, but not this flimsy. I will say though, that this is a good beginner palette. If you're just starting out with makeup this is a good place to begin practicing, but I would honeslty recommend going for the 120 or 88 palettes. They seem to provide more consistantly good eyeshadows and you literally get 4 to 6 times the eyeshadows at just $17-$25.  I'm still going to try and work with this palette, but I wouldn't suggest spending $10 on this palette or whatever they're charging for this at the time you're reading this. I can sense already that this is going to be one of my least used palettes. I hate to give negative negative reviews to a product, but I'm just giving my honest opinion in hopes that it'll help someone in need of advice.